Where to start...
Last Wed I had no classes, because of a feast day of Santa Theresa. The ESO students put together a bunch of activities for the younger students and they had a fair instead. They did face painting, pie throwing, and other such games. Since I had no class, Nuria and I went to the police station to get my ID numbers so I can open a bank account. We managed to go get ID photos taken, stop by a bank to pay the fee for an ID, and go back to the bank and turn in the paperwork all within an hour and 15 min. I got a document saying my ID number, and was told I can come pick up the card in one month. We were hoping that I could open a bank account with just the document, but the bank said they can't open it without the actual ID card. So, I'll have to have my first payment go into either Nuria's or Noelia's account and have them give me the money. Once I have my card I can switch my payments to my own account.
Wed night, Noelia and I went for a long walk with her friend, Enni. I'm not sure how far we went, since Noelia's walking app didn't want to work right. It timed us, but didn't show that we moved at all. My guess would be that we went about 6 miles. It was strange for me, since we went at 9:15pm, and got back around an hour and a half later. It was odd because I'm not used to feeling safe enough to walk around that much so late at night with just girls. In St. Cloud, there is no way I'd go for a walk like that, unless I had a knife or pepper spray or something to protect myself with. It was peculiar that I felt safer here, even though it's a much more populated city than St. Cloud. It was nice weather, and it felt good to get some exercise.
Thursday went normally at school. Friday, my 2 ESO classes all had exams, so I only had to go to school for an hour and a half the whole day. Then I got to chill at home for the rest of the day.
Saturday I went with Noelia to bring Avril and Alex to their piano lessons and swimming classes again. We stopped by the market again and got some tasty fruits and veggies to bring home and eat.
That evening we girls went shopping and Alex and Jose stayed home. Avril got a couple new sweatshirts (super cute!) and some jeans with a pretty floral print on them. I also got a pair of jeans, since the only pants I have here are crop sweatpants and one pair of black gauchos. Considering I have to wear a cardigan with all of my teaching outfits (to cover my tattoos) and the only cardigans I have are black and gray, I needed something with color. The pants look nice, and were 35 euros (not too bad), although they come up quite high on my waist so I have to roll down the top to have them fit properly. Oh well, at least with a cardigan on you can't see that it is rolled down.
Later, while we were still roaming Calle Mayor, we saw a bunch of wooden games for kids to play outside, and Jose and Alex came to play with them. We met up with some of Alex's friends and their parents and we all went bowling together. I was surprised that I actually won! I haven't bowled in about 4 years. I was glad to find that the bowling shoes here are wider than the ones in the US, so I could actually wear them for once. In the US I'm always stuck just wearing socks since the shoes never fit.
Sunday we went to the mountains (Pyrenees mountains) and hiked up a trail to a lake where we had a picnic. It was about a 2 1/2 hour hike up the mountain, then we stayed at the lake for around an hour. The trip back down the mountain was much quicker, around an hour and 15 minutes. It was quite a booty workout. There were more trees like we have in MN, such as birch and pine trees. More that were changing color as well.
It was perfect weather. I also taught the kids some ASL (American Sign Language) on the hike back down the mountain, which they found rather entertaining. On the way back home we stopped at a chocolate store that is well known in the area as having the best chocolate around. I got some dark chocolate covered almonds, and Jose got chocolate covered dried pineapple pieces and orange zest pieces. Avril likes white chocolate more, so she got white chocolate pieces. It was all very good!
We stopped at Noelia's parents' house in the country again as well, to pick up more fruits and veggies for the week. Laura had made a bunch of jelly with quince again this week, as well as jarred more olives. Here are the quince jellies:
So, that's about it for now! More to come next week, and definitely a post about Halloween/Castañas (Chestnut festival)!
